Great Plan
by Jackfan
Summary: FINAL CHAPTERS. JackIrina, with a little bit of Sydney. Post Passages II.
1. Chapter 1 Missing

Disclaimer: All the characters in this story are the property of Bad Robot/ABC/JJ  
  
Brief summary: Jack goes missing, Irina/Syd to the rescue.  
  
Rating: PG-13 for violence, language, suggestive situations  
  
Distribution: SD-1.com  
  
*****  
  
Jack  
  
Jack opened his eyes and waited while they adjusted to the dim light in the cell which had been his home for the past 72 hours. Wearily, he tried yet again to shift himself into a comfortable position on the damp cement floor. With his hands and feet bound, not too many options were available. Silently, he inventoried his physical condition. 3 cracked ribs, a loose tooth, one eye swollen shut. Bruised from head to toe. Not too bad, given that he had been worked over pretty methodically. If only they would let him sleep. He guessed it had been about 20 minutes since their last visit. Curious - they hadn't yet started asking any questions. Almost like they were waiting for something, or someone, to arrive.  
  
Sydney  
  
Sydney lay awake, unable to sleep, on the bunk in the Air Force transport winging its way to Eastern Europe. Three days since dad had disappeared into thin air. Intel (too damned late, she thought angrily) had finally gotten a fix on his location. Voronezh, an abandoned prison in Tajikistan. They had a constructed an extraction plan, as desperate as it was hasty. She prayed he would still be alive when they got there.  
  
Irina  
  
Irina woke and stretched lazily, refreshed from her cat nap. When Sydney had appeared, flustered, at her cell yesterday, it had been just another tedious day in a series of tedious days as a guest of the US government. Sydney had asked her about Voronezh, a facility Irina had visited many times over the past 20 years (sometimes as a guest there, too, she grimaced to herself).  
  
"Mom, I'm in a hurry. Tell me what you know about Voronezh"  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Mom, I don't have time for mind games. Please just tell me how I can get in."  
  
Irina sensed Sydney's barely suppressed panic. "Sydney, what is it? Is it Vaughn?" Sydney opened her mouth but no words came out. Irina scrutinized her closely. And paled. "It's Jack, isn't it?" Sydney nodded wordlessly.  
  
"Sydney, Voronezh was a high security prison. It is built 5 levels underground and has more than 1000 detention cells. If your father is there, there is no way to find him, let alone free him, short of a major armored assault. Please tell me he's not there."  
  
Finally finding her voice, Sydney said, "He disappeared 2 days ago. We intercepted a wireless phone message to Cuvee that a "package" had been delivered to Voronezh and for him to come pick it up. We're assuming it's dad and that Cuvee's trying to settle some old scores. Cuvee's scheduled to arrive tomorrow." 


	2. Chapter 2 A Plan

Jack  
  
Jack had no idea where he was. He didn't even know how he had gotten there. The last thing he remembered was storming away from Irina's cell, furious at her and furious at himself. That woman had betrayed him once, and now his heart was betraying him again. He had headed straight to the seedy bar he had frequented for the past 20 years, to drown the treacherous memories of Laura one more time, and to give him courage for another day without her. The Scotch had arrived, and he had downed it in one gulp. He remembered feeling confused and fuzzy - damn, his drink must have been doped. Great, he thought disgustedly. Superspy downed by one of the simplest tricks in the book.  
  
Jack heard footsteps approaching. He flinched involuntarily. So, this is what it must have been like for Pavlov's dogs, he thought grimly. Two guards approached his cell, with large pails. Wordlessly, they unlocked the cell and stepped over to where he lay. Jack held himself rigid, ready for the kicks. Instead, the guards upended the pails over him. Cold water soaked Jack to the bone. In the chilly cell, lying on the wet floor with no blanket, Jack knew that sleep would not be coming soon.  
  
Sydney  
  
As Sydney had listened to her mother describe the layout of the underground prison, with its central core of barracks and its perimeter of cells on 5 levels, she had felt overwhelmed by hopelessness. Even if she were to somehow penetrate the central core, it would take her hours to find the cell her father was in.  
  
"Sydney", her mother had said gently. "You understand that there is no way you could safely extract your father, don't you?"  
  
Sydney set her jaw. "All I know is that, if the situations were reversed, he would come after me. The plane leaves in an hour. Are you going to come up with a solution or not?"  
  
"Sydney! Do you think for a moment that that is what your father would want you to do? Needlessly risking your life for his when he might already be dead?" Her mother glared at her, frustrated more than she had ever been by the glass that separated them. Panic at losing her daughter adding an edge to her voice.  
  
"Haven't you ever loved someone enough to be willing to risk your life for him?" Sydney asked sadly.  
  
"Oh, Sydney." her mother choked, turning away as tears sprang to her eyes, remembering Laura, in a different life, double-crossing her handlers to keep them from kidnapping Jack and Sydney back to Russia.  
  
Irina turned back to Sydney and stared at her in silence.  
  
"I might have a plan," she said.  
  
Irina  
  
Irina checked her watch and applied her lipstick with care, sighed, then started moving towards the surface buildings of the Voronezh complex in the distance. As she left the cover of the trees, she moved cautiously, knowing that there would be perimeter security on the facility and knowing that she was a sitting duck for any patrol. Sure enough, she had not moved more than 200 yards before a Land Rover started up and headed in her direction, with a guard at the machine gun mounted on top. Irina put her hands into the air and waited. 


	3. Chapter 3 Old Friend

Jack  
  
Jack shivered uncontrollably. Think warm, he thought miserably. He tried to imagine he was in the Bahamas, on the beach, but it took too much effort to maintain the illusion. Footsteps again. He rolled over and swore. Cuvee. The pimp that had assigned Irina Derevko to him, accompanied by two guards, was approaching his cell. The door creaked open and Cuvee entered. Cuvee was grinning wolfishly.  
  
"Hello, Jack. Pleasure to see you again. Are they keeping you comfortable?"  
  
Jack said impassively, "I was going to talk to the concierge about getting a different view. The one I've got now (looking directly at Cuvee) could certainly be improved."  
  
Cuvee's face darkened. He gestured to the guards to lift Jack up, intent on settling some of his old scores, when his phone started ringing impatiently.  
  
"What is it?" he snarled into the phone. "What! Hold her there till I get there."  
  
He looked at Jack, suspended between the two guards. "We'll talk later" he said, in a voice that indicated that only one of them would enjoy the conversation. He wheeled out of the cell and headed back to the central core.  
  
Sydney  
  
Great plan, she thought to herself. Now she might lose both parents. She was poised with the "GOFER", the US Army's newest tunneling device, on the edge of the woods. It could tunnel underground at a speed of 10 yards per minute, leaving a fast-sealing epoxy in its wake to strengthen and support the tunnel created. The plan, if you could call it that, was for her mother to surrender herself to Cuvee and somehow end up in the same cell as her father. She would then activate a signaling device which would allow Sydney to pinpoint where they were in the complex so that she could tunnel down to them. As her mother had explained, all the prisoner cells were on the perimeter. All she would need to do was to pierce the external wall, load up her parents, and reverse the GOFER back to its original starting point.  
  
"Mom!" Sydney had argued. "He'll kill you on sight after what you did to him last time."  
  
"Sydney, things are never black and white in our business. Cuvee and I have a long history. I am hoping I can at least pique his curiosity about my current activities before he acts rashly. Besides - I am more likely than you to talk him into getting me in the same cell as your father. That's critical to the plan."  
  
"Mom, why are you doing this?"  
  
"To keep you from doing something unconscionably foolish."  
  
"Nothing to do with dad?" Sydney watched her closely.  
  
"Will you stand there all day asking questions? Or are you going to get me out of here?" responded her mother, refusing to be drawn.  
  
Irina  
  
Irina stood in the guard shack, hands bound, as Cuvee strode into the room. She smiled at him - a coy, 'we're both grownups' here smile. Cuvee stopped, and smiled back. He walked up to her and caressed her hair. Cupping her chin in his hand, he lent down and kissed her forcefully. He stepped back, smiled again, then quickly backhanded her with a blow that lifted her off her feet and left her in a heap against the wall. "Bitch! You thought you could come crawling back again?" He turned to one of the guards. "Give me your gun." He pointed it at her head. Irina looked back without flinching. Suddenly, the whine of a wheelchair could be heard. Cuvee turned his head. "Ah, you've arrived. I am just finishing up here, then we can get to business." S&G looked curiously from Cuvee to Irina. "A moment. If I am not mistaken, I believe she would be very helpful to me during the interrogation." Cuvee, his anger cooling, looked over at Irina. "Maybe you're right. I can wait." He grinned evilly at Irina, then spoke to the guards. "Take her down to Bristow's cell." The 2 guards leaned down to pick her up. Great plan, she sighed to herself. 


	4. Chapter 4 Reunion Pt 1

Jack & Irina  
  
Footsteps again. Cold and exhausted, Jack didn't even bother to look until the door opened, and Irina was hurled into the cell. Jack tried to catch her, to break her fall, but couldn't react in time. He grunted in pain as she landed on him heavily. The door closed and the guards silently walked back down the dark corridor.  
  
Irina rolled off him quickly, almost as if scalded. Jack watched, in silence, as Irina busied herself with a hair clip. She struggled with it, but was defeated by the bound hands. She turned to Jack and said briskly "Here, you reach it. Twist it twice counter-clockwise." Jack silently reached over and, with numb fingers, struggled for several seconds before managing to twist the hair clip. "It's done," he said.  
  
Sydney  
  
The green light started flashing on the GPS. Thank goodness - her mother had at least made it that far. She leapt into the GOFER, programmed the coordinates, and closed the hatch.  
  
Jack and Irina  
  
Jack looked at Irina in silence for several seconds. "Of all the gin joints in all the world.," he thought to himself. "Where are we?"  
  
"Tajikistan", she said. "It appears that Cuvee felt that he had some unfinished business with you. How'd you get here?" she asked curiously.  
  
"Doped my drink," Jack said shortly. Irina raised an eyebrow.  
  
"And you?" he asked, changing the subject.  
  
"I walked in," Irina said casually.  
  
"What??"  
  
"The hairclip is a locational signal. Sydney should arrive in about 2 hours for extraction."  
  
"And?"  
  
"And what?"  
  
"You mean that's the plan? Sydney is going to single-handedly infiltrate this facility, knock out all the guards, find us, and get us out? Oh, great plan," he said angrily.  
  
Irina's eyes flashed dangerously. "Jack, I am not the same person who made your dinners and washed your laundry."  
  
"No kidding," he interjected.  
  
".and I am more than competent to put together an operational extraction plan. If you've got an alternative, go ahead and walk out," she said irritably, crossing her legs and leaning against the wall.  
  
Jack would happily have throttled her instead. He knew he was struggling with the transition from Laura, the professor of literature, to Irina, his operational and strategic equal. He had almost compromised the mission in India because he would not listen to her.  
  
Regardless of performance in India, he still did not trust her. Anyone capable of the betrayal she had perpetrated on him and Sydney for 10 years clearly knew how to be patient.  
  
A thought occurred to him. "How do I know you haven't set this up with Cuvee?" he asked. Then, eying her smeared lipstick, "I'm sure you and he had a lot to *talk* about," he said nastily.  
  
"Don't be an idiot, Jack," Irina said with some asperity.  
  
"I was an idiot once. Never again," he ground out, and looked away. 


	5. Chapter 5 Reunion Pt 2

Sydney  
  
The GOFER roared its way through the dirt and rock. Please let them be okay, Sydney thought. She speculated about how the reunion had gone - there was so much for them to talk about.  
  
Jack and Irina  
  
Silence. Each was determined not to be the first that spoke. Jack watched Irina. He noticed the swelling on her jaw. Irina, in her turn, watched Jack. As her eyes grew used to the dim light, she sucked her breath in quickly. Jack had taken quite a beating.  
  
"Jack!" she said, involuntarily going to him to see if he was hurt. She gently touched his face, probing around his black eye and tracing his jaw. He winced slightly, but didn't pull away as she continued her exploration down his arms, legs, and chest. She noticed that he swallowed once, and was holding himself rigidly still. She sat back on her heels and studied him closely. "You'll live," she said, the bluntness of her assessment eased by the gentle tone she used.  
  
Relax, Jack told himself. You're tired and weak. He could still feel the warmth of her fingers. He shivered.  
  
"But you won't if you catch pneumonia. You look like a drowned rat. I'd strip those wet clothes off you if I had some others, but I don't. Later." Jack closed his eyes and swallowed again at the mental image of Irina stripping his clothes off. He could have screamed in frustration. How could he hate this woman and crave her touch at the same time?  
  
"In the meantime, I'll do my best to keep you warm." Jack's eyes flew open. His mouth opened to tell her to stay away, but no words came out.  
  
Awkwardly, carefully, she helped him shift out of the puddle of water he was lying in. She lay down next to him with her chest to his back and curled up so that her entire body was warming his. She gently wrapped her arms around him, hugging him close to keep him warm.  
  
Jack's shivers slowed, then ceased as she eased both their shirts up so they could lay skin on skin. They lay there in silence, lulled by the blissful warmth. And by some other feeling, long forgotten. 


	6. Chapter 6 Serum

Jack & Irina  
  
Irina heard it first. A faint mechanical whir down the hallway. She pulled away from Jack and helped him sit up, reorganizing their clothing. Jack, waking from a light doze, felt suddenly bereft by the loss of the closeness and the warmth. Then he heard it, too, and flashed a look of gratitude at her for not leaving him vulnerable as Cuvee, S&G, and the guards approached. He turned toward them, stone-faced.  
  
Peering at them through the bars, S&G was the first to speak. "Yes, it looks like you did soften him up rather well. On an experienced agent like Bristow, the serum works much better when he is in a weakened state."  
  
"How long?" grated Cuvee.  
  
"The drug's effects start appearing rapidly. Once we inject the drug, it will only take about 30 minutes before we can count on his responses. His inhibitions should have been totally eliminated, and he will tell you what you need to know."  
  
"I need answers in 2 hours, no later. I can not hold off inquiries into our failure with the Rambaldi device any longer. We must know how our operation was penetrated," he snapped.  
  
"A shame," S&G mused. "The old-fashioned methods take a little longer but are so reliable." He peered in at the prisoners. "Maybe another time?" he said hopefully.  
  
"To make sure it's reliable, inject them both. I can tell if it is working by Irina's answers to a couple of choice questions I have for her." Cuvee snapped his fingers at one of the guards who stepped into the cell, grabbed each one in turn, and injected an ampule of clear liquid into the right arm.  
  
"See you soon," hissed S&G, as his wheelchair whirred back down the hall.  
  
Sydney  
  
Sydney stretched. The cabin of the GOFER was large enough to seat two, with an enclosed cargo area behind. It was fitted out with a cot and medical supplies for Jack, as well as mission clothes for Jack and Irina once they were extracted.  
  
People thought the life of a spy was so glamorous - if only they knew the truth. Most of her job seemed to be traveling from one place to another, in a state of constant jet lag. Once a week she'd get 10-15 minutes of action, then have to travel some more.  
  
She checked on the C4 and nerve gas in the front compartment. Still an hour to go. Sydney wondered idly what her parents were up to.  
  
Jack  
  
Jack's mind spun. Cuvee. Rambaldi intelligence. Inevitably the questions would lead to Sydney and her double-agent role. If Cuvee found out she was a double-agent, it would only be a matter of time before the Alliance found out as well - with horrifying consequences for Sydney. He had been trained how to protect critical information during interrogations. He hoped he'd be strong enough to protect this.  
  
And, dear God, what if the serum started working before they returned? Would he be in an 8 x 10 cell with Irina Derevko with no ability to shield his emotions? Or what he truly thought? Exactly what inhibitions would be removed?  
  
Turning, he looked at Irina. And could tell from her startled glance that the same thoughts were going through her mind. 


	7. Chapter 7 Attraction

Irina  
  
Irina cursed softly to herself. She had not anticipated this. Like Jack, she was good at keeping her emotions under control. Unlike Jack, she had seen this drug in action. They were both in for a rough ride.  
  
She glanced at her watch. Still almost an hour until Sydney was likely to arrive.  
  
Trying to steer them both to neutral waters, she said, "Jack, given that they are likely to interrogate you prior to the extraction, I don't want to give you too many details on what the plan is. Make sure you stay away from the walls." She fiddled with her hairclip again and extracted two small capsules. "We need to take this antidote now. Unfortunately, it won't be of any use against the serum, but it will be helpful later."  
  
Jack looked away, then back again. He said slowly, "Irina, I owe you an apology. I'm not sure whether you're here to help me or to help Sydney, but if we don't manage to get out of this, I'm grateful." He looked faintly surprised at his words.  
  
Irina looked at him quizzically. Was that the first nice thing he had said to her in three months?  
  
Jack flushed. "I mean."  
  
Irina crossed the cell quickly and put her fingers to his lips. "Jack, quit while you're ahead. Besides, you'll just insult me again if you tell me this plan isn't likely to work." She smiled to take the sting out of her words.  
  
Jack was silent. He was looking at her fingers on his lips. She felt a small shiver of excitement race up her arm. She glanced at Jack and saw her reaction mirrored in his eyes.  
  
She drew a deep breath and backed away. Their passion had always flared to a white heat in seconds - she struggled to stay calm.  
  
Not now, she thought. Not this way.  
  
Jack  
  
Oh no, he thought. Not now. Not this way.  
  
Jack cleared his throat. "Irina, if I say or do anything inappropriate over the next hour, I apologize." He seemed to be doing a lot of apologizing lately. He found to his dismay that he was starting to feel warm all over. He found it easier to not look directly at her.  
  
"Jack, your hands and feet are bound. You hardly constitute a threat to my womanhood in your present state."  
  
"Then you're not using your imagination. Come closer and say that again," he growled. Good God, was that him speaking? He flushed again. "Irina, I'm sorry," he said, holding onto the shreds of his self-control.  
  
Irina gazed at him in silence, then smiled. He watched in horrified fascination as she tossed back her hair, crossed the cell, and straddled his lap, facing him. His breathing became labored.  
  
"Oh? And what did you have in mind?" she purred.  
  
Jack moaned. And in a moment of insight, through the haze of the drug, Jack knew. Knew that he no longer desired Laura. Their passion was a memory and his dreams of her would no longer trouble him. What he desired was the woman in front of him. Irina.  
  
He told her exactly what he had in mind.  
  
And reached out to pull her lips to his.  
  
Fire ran through him, consuming them both. God, he had missed her. He pulled away with a shuddering breath, then looked questioningly in her eyes. Satisfied with what he saw, he hungrily rained kisses on her throat.  
  
His hands reached for the buttons of her jacket, then froze in mid-air. 


	8. Chapter 8 Questions

Irina  
  
Irina heard it too. Footsteps. Three to four guards. Swiftly she moved to the other side of the cell, glancing out of the corner of her eye at Jack. He was looking flushed and distracted, but she didn't think the guards would notice. She wasn't thinking that clearly herself. Her fingers crept up to her lips, savoring the taste of that passionate embrace. God, she had missed him.  
  
She felt a sting of bitterness. It had been too much, too fast. She knew that, if they got out of this alive, Jack would hate himself even more for so totally losing control with her. He might even blame her for egging him on, though heaven knows she was just as vulnerable to the drug's effects as he.  
  
She pulled herself together and turned towards the noise.  
  
The door swung open. Without speaking, 2 guards grabbed her arms and started to lead her out of the cell. The other 2 grabbed Jack, preparing to pull him up to a standing position.  
  
As Irina went by, she felt her hairclip slide out of her hair to the floor. Horrified, she glanced back at Jack, then down at the clip. Without the clip, Sydney would enter the prison at the wrong point and be unable to find them before the alarm had been raised.  
  
They had always been able to communicate without speaking, and Jack understood her unspoken message. As the guards pulled him to his feet, he pretended to stumble and fall. The unexpected dead weight on their arms caused the guards to drop him heavily on the ground, over the spot where the clip was. Angrily, they yanked him back to his feet, then dragged him down the hall behind Irina. The floor where the clip had been was empty.  
  
Sydney  
  
Alarms started going off in the cab. The GPS went from a solid green to a flashing red. Sydney slammed on the brakes. What had gone wrong? She had lost her target.  
  
She frantically checked over the system for 5 minutes, then sighed in relief. The display was green again - but the coordinates were different. She programmed the GOFER to the new heading, and set off again. She was getting close.  
  
Jack  
  
The guards led Irina and dragged Jack, the hairclip in his pocket, down several winding corridors until they finally reached a brightly lit room, furnished sparsely with several chairs and a table. Cuvee was already there, pacing in his eagerness to get the information he needed. S&G was fiddling with a tape recorder. He looked up as the guards came in and gestured them to place Jack and Irina in chairs facing each other. Guards held them down.  
  
Jack looked over at Irina. Her expression was unreadable.  
  
"Hurry up!" Cuvee barked. S&G glanced mildly at him, then wheeled over to face Jack.  
  
Jack stared coolly at S&G. He had been trained for this, knew which information he could give up, which to protect. How to give up information in stages, to make it more convincing. Having debriefed Sydney and Will, he had no illusions about whether he was going to enjoy the next few minutes, but hoped that Irina was right about the extraction.  
  
S&G turned on the tape recorder, then started, "What is your name?"  
  
"Jonathan Bristow."  
  
"Who do you work for?"  
  
Jack's brain kicked into gear. The first answer was always supposed to be his cover - the aircraft parts company. Later on, when they sweated him some more, he would drop SD-6. His double-agent status with the CIA was one of those things he needed to keep buried, to protect himself and Sydney.  
  
"The CIA," he heard himself say. Oh my God, Jack thought. He had lived his cover everyday for 35 years, and his double-agent status every day for the last 10. He had coughed both of those up on the second question, and they hadn't touched him. He felt physically sick with the sudden realization that he would be unable to protect any of the information he guarded, and that many, including Sydney, would die.  
  
He felt Irina's gaze on him and looked up. Understanding and compassion filled her eyes. 


	9. Chapter 9 Confession

Irina  
  
Cuvee followed Jack's look and he sprang forward.  
  
"How do we know he's telling the truth? We know nothing about him. But I know *a lot* about Irina," he leered. "I'll do the asking for a while."  
  
S&G sighed, pushed back his glasses, and wheeled over to the wall.  
  
Irina watched Jack slump back, relieved, in his chair. He had no idea what Cuvee was talking about, but Irina suspected she did. And was not at all happy about it.  
  
Cuvee looked at her evilly, and mimicked S&G, "What is your name?" "Irina Derevko."  
  
"Who are you working for?"  
  
"No one." She saw Jack lean forward in his chair. An expression of interest flashed across his face, then was quickly extinguished before anyone else could see.  
  
"Why are you here?"  
  
"To help Jack escape."  
  
Cuvee raised an eyebrow, and exaggeratedly looked around the room, pausing at the guards, the stone walls, and her handcuffs. "Great plan so far," he sneered. "You must be telling the truth, if you're going to say something that stupid. And why would you want to rescue Bristow?"  
  
Irina paled. Not here, she thought. Not now. Anything but this. Beads of perspiration formed on her forehead.  
  
Cuvee glanced in puzzlement at S&G, who shrugged his shoulders and said, "She was a little stronger. Give her time."  
  
"I said, why would you want to rescue Bristow?" Cuvee snapped.  
  
Irina saw Jack watching her intently.  
  
"Because," she swallowed, "because I love him," she finished in a whisper.  
  
Sydney  
  
Finally, Sydney thought. She placed the GOFER in idle, immediately in front of the underground wall into the compound. According to the coordinates still coming from the hairclip, Irina and Jack should be about 10 feet on the other side of the wall. She started to ready the explosive.  
  
Irina  
  
Silence.  
  
Irina glanced up, first at Jack, who was looking thunderstruck, and then at Cuvee, who was looking incredulous.  
  
"I must have misunderstood," Cuvee snarled. "I watched you play this man for a fool for 10 years, betray him, and ruin his career. You want me to believe that you have fallen in love with him? 20 years later?  
  
"I always loved him," began Irina, her voice growing stronger. " I never lied to Jack about our love. Only to you." 


	10. Chapter 10 Seduction

Jack  
  
Blood roared in Jack's ears. Everything he had forced himself to believe over the past 20 years had been turned upside down. He found it difficult to breathe. He strained against his guards, wanting to shout out questions to her, but Cuvee got there first.  
  
"Odd way to show your love," Cuvee sneered. "Stealing secrets from him and getting him locked into prison for 6 months! With lovers like you, who needs enemies?"  
  
Irina flinched, but seemed to gather herself together. Instead of responding to Cuvee, she looked directly at Jack, pleading for understanding with her eyes. The room seemed to become smaller - just the two of them together, going back in time.  
  
"It began as a mission. I was so proud to be selected. I never doubted that what I was doing was right, that America was the enemy of my people. I was handpicked, hand-trained by Cuvee. There were several possible targets, but you were the agent with the most potential."  
  
"Our first few "accidental" meetings proceeded just as planned. They went well, and we all agreed that I would focus my efforts on seducing you."  
  
She hesitated. "And then you seduced me."  
  
Jack swallowed, remembering their first night together. They had decided to go out for Chinese food after studying at the library. The restaurant had been full, so Jack had suggested eating takeout back at his apartment. He did not remember much of the meal, but remembered very clearly the night that followed. Wild with passion. Exploring every part of her body. They had finally fallen into an exhausted slumber at dawn.  
  
"That was the beginning of the end. Cuvee congratulated me on so totally duping you. All I could think about was how soon we could be together again. With each successive meeting, I slipped further and further into the abyss. As soon as we would part, my eyes would yearn for your smile, my ears for your laugh, my body for your touch. I told Cuvee that I had you completely fooled. But I knew that I was the fool, and that one day I would pay."  
  
Irina  
  
Irina's eyes welled up with tears. She paused to recover herself - she could not show weakness to Cuvee. She looked across at Jack, but his face was shuttered. Please let him believe me, she thought. It had not been her plan for him to find out so soon. She had hoped to, over time, rebuild some trust before opening up his old wounds. But she had no choice now.  
  
"Ahem," interjected S&G. "Perhaps we could return to Bristow?"  
  
"Wait," snarled Cuvee. "She's lying. She betrayed him for years." Turning to Irina, he said, "Tell him."  
  
Irina paused. She saw the flash of pain across Jack's face. He had been so committed to what he had been doing. She could still feel the drug's pull, but she no longer fought it. Now that she had started, she knew she needed to finish. She might never get another chance. She looked across at him again.  
  
She took a deep breath, and resumed, "Soon, I was being pressed to provide intelligence on your work with Project Christmas. They were expecting photos of your briefcase contents, taped conversations of your phone calls. In their wildest dreams they could not have hoped for what really happened - that at night, in bed, we would talk about your work together. That you needed someone to act as a sounding board, someone you could absolutely trust. Me."  
  
"I was sickened by the thought of betraying you as absolutely as you trusted me. I resisted for a while, saying that you were too careful to bring information home. Occasionally I would provide them with intelligence which had been gathered from other sources, not from you."  
  
She sighed. "But in those days, part of the recruitment process for deep undercover agents was to ensure that sufficient family remained at home to ensure the loyalty of the agent. Too many had gone native - the organization knew how to deal with that problem. My parents had both died when I was in my teens. I had a younger sister that I had almost raised myself. My handler started bringing pictures of her to our meetings. The message was clear. Once Sydney was born, of course, he would just bring surveillance photos of Sydney."  
  
She saw Jack's eyes flash. He had been unaware of the danger Sydney had been in every day of her young life.  
  
"And so I began to provide regular updates on Project Christmas. Moscow was gratified. It was a very tightly controlled project, and I was the only source they had. What they could not realize, because they had no way to validate the intelligence, was that the information I fed to them was bad - mostly taking them down the dead ends that you had already investigated and discarded. By that point, I knew almost as much about the project as you did. I could create very credible intelligence which did not hurt the project at all."  
  
"Jack, I did what I could to protect Sydney. I did not betray you."  
  
Jack  
  
Jack looked at the floor. He could not meet her eyes. She was lying. He did not know how she had been able to fight the serum, but she had. When the CIA had imprisoned him they showed him intercepts from Irina. The intelligence she had provided had been the most up-to-date, damaging information possible to leak to Moscow. His throat tightened in despair. It was all a lie. 


	11. Chapter 11 Truth

Irina  
  
Irina watched Jack look up, and was rocked by the blaze of hate from his eyes. It's over, she thought to herself numbly. He will never believe me.  
  
Wearily, she looked over at Cuvee. He was not done with her yet.  
  
"You're lying!" he hissed. "He was put in prison for what you did!"  
  
"Yes, he was," she said sadly. "There was no other way."  
  
"What do you mean, no other way?"  
  
"It was the only way I could think of to protect Jack and Sydney."  
  
Sighing, she looked over at Jack. The shuttered look again. Probably just as well that she could not see what he was thinking.  
  
Addressing herself to him, she continued, "It all came crashing down when Moscow decided that you had become too valuable. They wanted more than just updates - they wanted you captured and interrogated, then eliminated. We had scheduled a trip to Cozumel for that June. They were going to have an extraction team waiting, to kidnap both you and Sydney. You, to torture and kill; Sydney, to ensure my good behavior."  
  
Jack  
  
Jack snapped back to attention. He remembered the Cozumel trip - he'd had to arrange to get it cancelled from prison. He watched her closely.  
  
"I was panicked. There was no way I could fake compliance with this order, and no way I could halt it once it was underway. I considered everything. Even suicide," she said quietly. "But my being gone would not have protected you - they still would have come for you."  
  
"I know you thought the FBI found me out, and that's why I fled. Didn't you wonder how, after 10 years, I could have made a blunder like that? I leaked the information myself. And this time, since the information was going to the FBI and not Moscow, I made sure the intelligence was as damaging as possible. I needed to get their attention."  
  
You certainly did that, Jack thought grimly. Wait. What had she said about he information she leaked to the FBI? 'As damaging as possible'? Those must have been the intercepts he was shown. He felt a small surge of hope.  
  
"Blowing my cover did two things, Irina continued, unaware of Jack's reaction. "It shut down the Mexican extraction operation, and it," she paused, stumbling for words. She took a deep breath, "It put you in prison, where they could not reach you."  
  
Jack saw her look imploringly at him, begging his forgiveness. A tear rolled down her cheek. "I had been careful to do nothing that implicated you, but I knew it would take them a while to be convinced. "It was the only thing I could think of."  
  
"I faked my death. I was afraid you might guess what had happened and try to find me. I hoped my death would give some closure to you and Sydney, let you move on with your lives."  
  
Jack bowed his head. It was the truth, he thought with relief. All of it. What an idiot he'd been. But how could she have ever thought he could just move on, after what they had had? After what they still might have, he realized, with dawning hope. Was it too late? He looked up and across at her, willing himself to knock down the barriers so that she could see straight through to his soul. Irina looked back, wearily at first, then with widened eyes as she read his message. 


	12. Chapter 12 Escape

Jack  
  
Cuvee paced back and forth angrily. The cords of his neck were popping and he spat out, "Are you telling me that a woman like you would love a man like this? What about all of our time together?"  
  
Irina turned and stared at Cuvee, as if he were an insect. "Any *time* you and I had together was just business. Sex with you was repulsive."  
  
The guards quickly covered their grins. One sniggered. S&G said mildly, "I think we have established that the serum is effective. Perhaps we should return to Mr. Bristow."  
  
But Jack was watching Cuvee, whose face had turned an alarming shade of purple. Cuvee pulled his gun and aimed it at Irina. "That's it, bitch. Your usefulness is at an end."  
  
Irina  
  
Jack leapt out of his chair, arms outstretched for the gun in Cuvee's hands, before his guards noticed he was gone. He grabbed the gun and fell down heavily with Cuvee, wrestling for control. A shot fired, and both men froze. Irina watched in relief as Cuvee slumped, a red stain spreading on his shirt.  
  
She looked up, and saw another threat. The guards were moving in on Jack. "Jack, roll!" she shouted, as a rifle butt came crashing down where his head had been a split-second before. She pulled herself free, and arced at kick at the guard next to her, who was sighting down his barrel at Jack.  
  
BOOM! An explosion rocked the room as tons of dirt and debris caved in from the outer wall. A canister was tossed into the room, and started hissing loudly. The fast-acting gas caused the guards to slump over to the floor around them.  
  
Sydney  
  
A head poked through the hole in the wall. "Mom, Dad, are you all right?" asked Sydney. "Looks like I came at a good time." Her eyes took in Cuvee, covered in blood on the floor, and an overturned wheelchair under the pile of rubble near the wall.  
  
Not hearing an answer, she peered through the haze of dust. Sydney's mother was pulling her father to a standing position. They seemed to be standing awfully close together.  
  
"Mom, Dad. I don't think we have much longer before we get a lot of company. Let's get out of here."  
  
Irina turned toward Sydney, visibly regaining control. "Right, dear. Sydney, help me with your father."  
  
Sydney winced inwardly as she looked more closely at Jack. That face would hurt in the morning, all right. She wrapped her arm around his waist and helped him shuffle towards the opening in the wall. As they passed the table he stopped. Looking over and grinning wickedly at her mother he said, pulling the tape from the tape machine, "Think I'll keep this for a while." Her mom rolled her eyes, then stooped down to pluck the keys from one of the guards' belts. They all hurried out the wall into the GOFER. 


	13. Chapter 13 Talk

Sydney  
  
Sydney dumped her father unceremoniously in the cargo compartment. He'd have to wait until they got moving. She quickly moved forward into the cab to see her mother securing the hatch.  
  
Sydney plugged the coordinates for the extraction point into the GOFER, and fired up the engine. They began tunneling out. She paused the GOFER after about 2 minutes and detonated another explosion.  
  
She turned to her mother and grinned, "That should slow them down. They won't be able to figure out where we're coming up now." She noticed her mother still looked slightly distracted. Must have been a rough few hours.  
  
"It'll take us about 2 hours to get back," she shouted, over the noise. "Why don't you relax here and I'll go back and check on Dad. You'll both need to get changed into your mission clothes."  
  
"That's okay," said her mother, "your father and I have a lot to talk about. I'll go take care of him."  
  
Sydney was surprised. She thought that 2 hours together would have been more than enough for her parents, but she shrugged and turned back to the readout.  
  
Jack  
  
Jack lay on the cargo area cot, deep in thought. His mind spun. He could feel his mind clearing as the serum started to wear off, but it was still too much to process all at one time. He smiled to himself. He could always play the tape again. The door opened from the cab and Irina came through, keys in her hand.  
  
Jack gazed at her surreptitiously through his eyelashes. With everything they had been through she was still incredibly desirable. She sat down next to him on the bunk and fumbled with her handcuffs.  
  
She took them off with relief and massaged her wrists, saying casually, "It's 2 hours to the extraction point. Nothing really to do between now and then."  
  
"Really?" said Jack, catching on quickly. He looked pointedly at the door to the cab. Irina stepped over and threw the latch. "My clothes are still wet," he said, suspiciously meekly.  
  
"Hmm, need to do something about that." Irina stepped over to the bunk and started to slowly unbutton Jack's shirt, caressing him as she went. She pulled his shirt out of his pants and ran her hands along his chest, curling her fingers through his chest hair. Some, she noticed, was going gray. She gently ran her fingers over scars she did not recognize.  
  
"Irina, would you mind unlocking these handcuffs?" said Jack hoarsely.  
  
"In a minute, Jack. First things first." She reached for his belt.  
  
"Irina!" Jack said warningly.  
  
She smiled at him and reached for the keys. "Do you promise to be good?" she asked with a twinkle.  
  
"I promise," he drawled slowly, "to be very, *very* good."  
  
Sydney  
  
Sydney reached over and turned the intercom from Auto to Off. Really, she had not needed to hear that. "Things to talk about" indeed. Weren't they a little old for that? She smirked. 


	14. Chapter 14 Time

Irina  
  
Irina contentedly lay with her head pillowed on Jack's chest, luxuriating in his smell and his touch. He had indeed kept his promise. For 20 years her nights had been filled with dreams of what their reunion might be. She smiled to herself. Lying on the floor of the cargo area of a GOFER, roaring through tons of rock, had not been in any of them.  
  
Jack propped himself up on one elbow, gazing at her. He began to lazily play with her hair. She could tell he was trying to work something out. She waited patiently.  
  
"Irina?" he finally asked. "Why did you never tell me?"  
  
She sensed the hurt behind the question. Hadn't she trusted him? Didn't she think that he would have risked anything to help her? She stalled. "Then? Or now?"  
  
"Either. Both."  
  
Irina sighed. "Jack, you'll never know how many times I wanted to tell you. I would watch you dry Sydney's tears when she scraped her knee, and dream that you would hold me in your arms and tell me it would everything would be okay."  
  
She shifted slightly, so that she could look directly into his eyes. "But Jack, you had been married to a KGB agent for 6 years. If I had told you, you would only have had 2 choices - to send your wife and the mother of your child to prison, or to remain quiet and become an accomplice, risking exposure yourself. I couldn't ask you to make that choice. It was my mess. I needed to clean it up myself."  
  
She could see Jack focus inward, see his struggle as he tried to work out for himself what he would have done if she had confessed to him. Try to find a third way that might have preserved all of them. She put her hand over his mouth, saying softly, "Hush. If our positions had been reversed, would you have told me?"  
  
Jack's gaze cleared. He looked at her mutely, and slowly shook his head. He looked away for a minute. When he looked back, his eyes were bright with unshed tears. "20 years," he said softly.  
  
A lump formed in Irina's throat as Jack lowered his defenses and let her see the pain and loneliness of his life since she had left. "Oh, Jack," she started, before tears began to fall. They clung together in a wordless embrace, mourning the life they might have had.  
  
Minutes later, she gently disentangled herself and glanced at her watch. "Jack, we've got about 45 minutes before we get there. Why don't you get changed and rest? When was the last time you slept?"  
  
Jack looked at her with longing. "This may be our last time alone for some time," he said with a hint of sadness. His hand began to move across her body, arousing her with his touch. "I can sleep later." He gently lowered his lips to hers. 


	15. Chapter 15 Help

Sydney  
  
15 minutes to go. Sydney reached over to the intercom and switched it back on. "Mom, Dad, if you're done *talking*, we have 15 minutes until we're there." Really, she thought to herself, this was worse than being a 3rd wheel on one of Francie's dates.  
  
5 minutes later, her father came into the cab. He had changed but still sported a 3 day stubble and a multi-colored array of bruises on his face. Sydney looked closer, and giggled. Jack looked at her, curiously. "Dad, was there a mirror in the back?" she asked. He shook his head, mystified. Sydney pulled out a handkerchief, wet it with her tongue, and rubbed it vigorously on his face and neck. Holding it up for inspection she said, "Lipstick?"  
  
Jack smiled sheepishly. Sydney was surprised at how much younger it made him look.  
  
Jack took a deep breath. "Sydney, we need to talk about your mother. While we were in Voronezh she hared much more of her history, things of which I was never aware. Things which dramatically change the interpretation of her actions towards you and me. I have reason to believe her. She will, I am sure, tell you herself in her own time, and you will need to make your own decision."  
  
He shifted uncomfortably. "Sydney, I was deeply in love with your mother before she left us. I am likely to be deeply in love with her again. She is still a guest of the US government. I am still an agent for the CIA. I -," he paused, considering, "I've never asked for your help on anything. I might need your help for a while, trying to get this right." He looked down at his hands.  
  
Sydney, touched, took one of her hands in his. Had he ever shared his feelings with her before? "Dad, don't worry. I'll be there for you." She reached over and gave him a hug. He looked up, slightly surprised, then smiled gratefully and hugged her back. 


	16. Chapter 16 Always

Jack/Sydney/Irina  
  
The Rover burst into the sunlight, sheltered from view by trees on all sides. US Marines had formed a perimeter around two choppers. They closed in on the Rover.  
  
Jack banged on the door to the cargo hold. "Irina, are you ready?" Irina opened the door, and Jack smiled appreciatively. There must have been a mirror in there somewhere. Her hair and makeup were perfect. He looked behind her and saw with relief that the cargo area was tidied up as well. She arched an eyebrow at him. He grinned.  
  
Sydney watched this interplay with interest. Her father had smiled more in the past 15 minutes than he had in 20 years.  
  
They opened the hatch and headed out, Jack in the lead, Sydney and her mother behind. Sydney saw her mother's smile falter for a second as she spotted something, only to be replaced immediately with what Sydney privately coined her mother's 'game face'.  
  
The Marine lieutenant approached them. "Mr. Bristow, Miss Bristow, welcome back. I have orders to transport you to Stuttgart for medical attention and debriefing." As he turned to face Irina, Sydney saw what Irina must have seen earlier - 2 US Marshals standing behind him. "Ms. Derevko, you will be escorted back separately straight to the US."  
  
Jack stepped forward. "Mrs. Bristow," he emphasized slowly, "will be accompanying us."  
  
The lieutenant turned back to face him. "Sir, my orders are clear. Director Kendall feels it is a security risk for, uh, Mrs. Bristow to remain in Europe. I'm afraid I must insist."  
  
Jack began to look dangerous. Sydney and Irina simultaneously put their hands on his arms.  
  
"Dad," Sydney began, "don't."  
  
"Jack," said Irina softly. "We need to do it this way. Visit me when you get back."  
  
One of the marshals approached Irina with hand and leg irons. Jack gave Irina a long look, swallowed, then reached out and snatched them from the marshal. "Give me those," he growled. "I'll do it." Gently he put the irons on, first her ankles, then her wrists, leaving enough space so they wouldn't chafe.  
  
He stood with her hands in his, gazing deep into her eyes. Then, indifferent to the audience of Marines, US Marshals, and his own daughter, he slowly bent down and kissed her - a long, lingering, bittersweet kiss - and stepped away, at a loss for words.  
  
With a Marshal on either side, Irina slowly made her way to her helicopter. She did not look back. She did not think she had the strength to.  
  
Jack watched her go, following her with his eyes until the helicopter flew out of sight. He felt Sydney's arm on his again, and turned to look at her. Understanding and love filled her eyes. "Don't worry Dad, you'll figure it out."  
  
Putting his arm around her, they headed to their helicopter.  
  
***Fin*** 


End file.
